Over the past three decades, positive tone chemically amplified (CA) photoresists developed with aqueous base have been the industry standard for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Recently, there has been a switch to negative tone resists developed in organic solvent due to their superior performance in certain lithographic processes. Typically the same CA resists are used for both positive tone aqueous solvent developed resists and negative tone organic solvent developed resists. Because the CA resists have not been optimized for organic solvent development, they can suffer performance limitations when used as negative tone organic solvent developed resists, particularly with respect to unwanted resist thinning and loss of contrast. In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a method to improve the performance of conventional CA resists such that the CA resists are more compatible with organic solvent negative tone development. An additional advantage would be found in the art if the improved organic solvent developable CA resist could be processed as both negative tone and positive tone resists.